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Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#151

Post by hanniabu »

yaur wrote: post #117
huffmsa wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had he been made aware of the tracking device, like one is with an ankle monitoring bracelet, then sure, removal is cause for an arrest on theft, destruction of property, etc. However, since he was not made aware of the device, he has no obligation to be compliant. If the police were tapping someone's phone and they threw away the phone, for whatever reason, would they be in a similar situation? If they avoided a hum…

I believe that the point of the theft charge was to get a search warrant, which they did. Regardless of if he “walks” on the theft charge it seems unlikely that the evidence they gathered when serving that warrant will be thrown out.

If they obtained these evidence illegally then it shouldn't be admissible in court.

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#152

Post by tsimionescu »

manigandham wrote: post #99
tsimionescu wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't say that media and public shame are worse than the abuses of the criminal justice system. Your life may get turned upside down if you are simply accused of some crimes (especially sexual crimes), but you may very well bounce back. Getting rightly accused of possession of light drugs and ending up in prison is a much worse outcome, and it happens to many, many times more people. And unlike the celebrities th…

How is actually committing a crime and going to prison somehow worse than being wrongfully accused and affected for life?

Well, first of all it's a matter of numbers. Maybe hundreds of people's lives has been affected by being accused of a crime and being judged by the public eye with a presumption of guilt (some of these people may be guilty, some may not).

However, hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from vastly over-exaggerated punishment for minor crimes. Even more, the current political climate suggests that some of what these people did should not have been illegal in the first place (e.g. Marijuana use and distribution). Worse still, there is discretionary, racist enforcement of many of these laws, disproportionately affecting some communities and not others.

Individually, suffering from being falsely accused of a crime is much worse than being punished excessively for a crime you did commit.

But overall, people losing jobs and status is a much smaller problem to society todyay than excessive enforcement of minor crimes.

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#153

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Lots of hypotheticals, fun reading here.

My thought: Isn't there something about bearing witness against yourself? In America you're not required to do so. Isn't removing a tracking device something like pleading the 5th?

Others suggest you should return it to the police, but it seems to me there are way better approaches to that than handing it over.

Its a tracking device, right? They're going to find it, wherever you put it (except in a locked metal cabinet of course).

So leave it by the side of the road - they'll see it quit moving, find it, assume it fell off. Maybe try again, put it back on your car.

Next time, maybe leave it outside town in a muddy drainage ditch? Imagine the sap who has to go in there to get it.

All sorts of fun could be had. Leave it in a bank lobby. In Victoria's Secret under the discount table. In a trash can at the zoo. Behind the Police station where they keep the idle tracking devices. In an abandoned building. Under a parked police car.

So many better ways to deal with this problem, it could hardly be called a problem at all. Its a challenge!

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#154

Post by throwaway_tech »

Whats really troubling here is in the future, the police could get a warrant to track a vehicle, take the tracker off themselves, then go back to the courts claiming there is probable cause the suspect stole the tracker and get the warrant to search for their tracker in the suspects home and parents home...of course searching for whatever it is they really wanted but had no right to search for.

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#155

Post by Clubber »

icebraining wrote: post #111
m463 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the people 'serving' have more rights and privileges then everybody else I was told the difference between a policeman and a citizen (via citizen's arrest) is that a policeman can arrest someone for a misdemeanor.

According to Wikipedia, misdemeanors are OK too, as long as they were committed in the presence of that citizen. I think the real difference is that the cops have qualified immunity, meaning they aren't at fault even if the arrest turned out to be unjustified, and regular citizens do not.

I think police can be at fault, it's just the individual police officer doesn't typically pay the fine, it's their jurisdiction (city/county), i.e. the citizens.

I don't mean to sound pedantic, just having a conversation.

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#156

Post by vonmoltke »

Frondo wrote: post #144
DagAgren wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So which do you think makes more sense: Police are not allowed to arrest people, or everyone is allowed to arrest?

Former private security guard here: in our training, we were told that we, as private citizens, could "arrest" someone, if you're willing to sign your name to an arrest warrant. You'd want to have the cops on the way, and be willing to face a false arrest lawsuit for detaining them, so you'd better be really 100% sure you caught them in the act of doing something illegal. We were also taught it's almost never worth d…

I think that hints towards freeopinion's point. You, as a private citizen, should have exactly the same legal liability with respect to false arrest as a police officer.

Then the question is, is such a good idea?

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#159

Post by bluGill »

Spooky23 wrote: post #131
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this depends. On the way to an emergency? Of course they should. And people should pull over. And only sometimes while on the job. For example, if they catch someone for speeding and happen to go through a red light, I don't find that to be a grave thing. Speeding is easily a public hazard. Going off to investigate a theft where the thief has left the property, though? No need to run the light as the delay won'…

They have protocols for that and generally follow them.

Those protocols are why something like 95% of the time when you see an ambulance with the lights on there is nobody in the back. (The worst case of a broken leg is serious internal bleeding that only an expert can detect, then they get there and it is just a broken leg)

Re: Indiana man charged with theft for removing police tracking device from car

#160

Post by Jamwinner »

tehwebguy wrote: post #149
imtringued wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this intention written down? Can you show me the relevant law?

Qualified immunity laws and case law is what you are looking for.

Not to mention being 'on the level'.
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